Internalized racism has and always will be a disease that plague’s society until the very end of time. Growing up for Malcolm X was very rough due to his hair color and skin complexion. Being that he was the lightest out of his siblings, Malcolm X, received little to no beatings from his father, ironically it was his mother “who looked like a white woman” (Malcolm X p.2) who would reprimand him with whippings. Malcolm X believed that the ideology of “white being better than black” embedded in the mind by whites subconsciously affected his father’s way of viewing his brothers and sisters. Even his mother received harsh beatings from his dad because her level of education was much higher than his father’s. “I was among the millions of Negroes who were insane enough to feel that is was some kind of status symbol…” (Malcolm X p.3), it was this type of thinking or dogma that Malcolm X adapted when he was young which lead him to “frying “ or relaxing his hair like white folks and having sexual encounters with white women.
Malcolm X is conveying that this type of thinking is what’s eating away the core of black people. Whites for decades upon decades having been tricking the minds of blacks into thinking that white is right and black is wrong, feebleminded, and inferior. Internalized racism has in many ways contributed to self-hatred and hating amongst those in the same race. Even in today’s society many African-Americans are succumbing their natural beauty whether physically or mentally to achieve social and high status.
Good observations - I agree that it's so notable that each parent preferred the child who was different from them in that matter.
ReplyDeleteBut - - do we know that this will 'always' be this way? In the chapter of Reed we've been discussing, he talks about the change in self-perception among African Americans is among the biggest *successes* of the Black Power/Black Arts movement - it might be interesting to look at his support for this . . .